Classification society

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In the shipping industry, classification societies are non-governmental organizations or groups of professionals, ship surveyors and representatives of offices that promote the safety and protection of the environment of ships and offshore structures.

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[edit] Responsibilities

Classification societies set technical rules, confirm that designs and calculations meet these rules, survey ships and structures during the process of construction and commissioning, and periodically survey vessels to ensure that they continue to meet the rules. Classification societies are also responsible for classing oil platforms, other offshore structures, and submarines. Included in the survey process is the survey and certification of diesel engines, large or critical pumps such as fire or main bilge pumps, and other machinery vital to the function of the ship. This is frequently done at the manufacturer's plant, which may be hundreds of miles from the shipyard or drydock.

[edit] History

In the second half of the 18th century, merchants, marine underwriters, and others, all connected with shipping often gathered at Edward Lloyd's coffee house in London. In 1760, customers of that coffee house formed the Register Society, the first authentic classification society and which would subsequently become Lloyd's Register. Their purpose was to develop a system for the independent inspection of the hull and equipment of ships presented to them to be insured.

At that time, an attempt was made to 'classify' the condition of each ship on an annual basis. The condition of the hull was classified A, E, I, O or U, according to the excellence of its construction and its adjudged continuing soundness (or lack thereof). Equipment was G, M, or B: simply, good, middling or bad. In time, G, M and B were replaced by 1, 2 and 3, which is the origin of the well-known expression 'A1', meaning 'first or highest class'.

The first edition of the Register of Ships was published by Lloyd's Register in 1764 and was for use in the years 1764 to 1766.

Bureau Veritas (BV) was founded in Antwerp in 1828, moving to Paris in 1832. Lloyd's Register reconstituted in 1834 to become 'Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipping'. Where previously surveys had been undertaken by retired sea captains, from this time surveyors started to be employed and Lloyd's Register formed a General Committee for the running fo the Society and for the Rules regarding ship construction and maintenance, which began to be published from this time.

Adoption of common rules for ship construction by Norwegian insurance societies in the late 1850s led to the establishment of Det Norske Veritas (DNV) in 1864. Germanischer Lloyd (GL) was formed in 1867 and Nippon Kaiji Kyokai (ClassNK) in 1899. The Russian Maritime Register of Shipping (RS) was an early offshoot of the River Register of 1913.

As the classification profession evolved, the practice of assigning different classifications has been superseded, with some exceptions. Today a ship either meets the relevant class society’s rules or it does not. As a consequence it is either 'in' or 'out' of 'class'. Classification societies do not issue statements or certifications that a vessel is 'fit to sail' or 'unfit to sail', merely that the vessel is in compliance with the required codes. This is in part related to legal liability of the classification society.

However, each of the classification societies has developed a series of notations that may be granted to a vessel to indicate that it is in compliance with some additional criteria that may be either specific to that vessel type or that are in excess of the standard classification requirements. See Ice class as an example.

[edit] Today

Today there are a number of classification societies, including Lloyd's Register, Det Norske Veritas and the American Bureau of Shipping.

Classification societies employ ship surveyors, material engineers, piping engineers, mechanical engineers, chemical engineers and electrical engineers, often located at ports and office buildings around the world.

Marine vessels and structures are classified according to the soundness of their structure and design for the purpose of the vessel. The classification rules are designed to ensure an acceptable degree of stability, safety, environmental impact, etc.

All nations require that ships and other marine structures flying their flag meet certain standards; in most cases these standards are deemed to be met if the ship has the relevant certificate from a member of the IACS or EMSA. Certificates issued by the classification society on behalf of the flag country are also required for pumps, engines, and other equipment vital to the ship's function. Equipment under certain sizes is usually excluded from these certificate requirements.

In particular, classification societies may be authorised to inspect ships, oil rigs, submarines, and other marine structures and issue certificates on behalf of the state under whose flag the ships are registered.

There are more than 50 marine classification organizations worldwide, some of which are listed below.

[edit] List of Classification Societies

Name Abvr Date Head office IACS EMSA
Lloyd's Register of Shipping LR 1760 London [1] x x
Bureau Veritas BV 1828 Paris x x
Registro Italiano Navale RINA 1861 Genoa x x
American Bureau of Shipping ABS 1862 Houston x x
Det Norske Veritas DNV 1864 Oslo x x
Germanischer Lloyd GL 1867 Hamburg x x
Nippon Kaiji Kyokai NKK 1899 Tokyo x x
Russian Maritime Register of Shipping
(Российский морской регистр судоходства)		 RS 1913 Sankt Petersburg x x
Hellenic Register of Shipping HR 1919 Pireus - x[2]
Polish Register of Shipping PRS 1936 Gdańsk - x[3]
Croatian Register of Shipping CRS 1949 Split - -
China Classification Society CCS 1956 Beijing x x
Korean Register of Shipping KR 1960 Daejeon x x
Biro Klasifikasi Indonesia BKI 1964 Jakarta - -
Registro Internacional Naval[4] RINAVE 1973 Paris - x [5]
Indian Register of Shipping IRS 1975 Mumbai x[6] -
Brazilian Register of Shipping RBNA 1982 Rio de Janeiro - -
International Register of Shipping IROS 1993 Miami - -
Iranian Classification Society ICS 2007 Tehran - -
  1. ^ LR plans to move its head office to Southampton in 2011
  2. ^ Recognition for Greece, Cyprus and Malta
  3. ^ Recognition for Poland, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Lithuania, Malta and the Slovak Republic
  4. ^ Since 2004 in Bureau Veritas
  5. ^ Recognition for Portugal
  6. ^ Associate member of IACS

[edit] External links

IACS document explaining Classification societies

[edit] See also

Prestige oil spill, an incident and following lawsuit that could have radically changed the role of class societies